


January, 2000

by wneleh



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: F/M, college days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 22:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9259484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wneleh/pseuds/wneleh
Summary: Maybe if he stands here long enough looking at the accumulating snow, Link will appear with the duffle bag and he’ll be able to get dressed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't at all what I'd planned out, but I can't read my handwriting.

_January, 2000_

Link’s left the den a mess, and Rhett has no clue where his duffle bag is hiding.

Under the brown comforter, maybe? Or did he drop it in front hallway last night, and leave it there? 

Yeah, he’s pretty sure it didn’t make it any further into Link’s fiancé Christy’s aunt’s vacation condo.

Rhett isn’t going to walk out and through the living room in just a towel, but darn it, he’s getting COLD, the electric baseboard heater doing nothing other than prove that the condo had been built during that period of the 1970s when, legend had it, nuke-produced electric heat had seemed like a pretty good idea.

Maybe if he stands here long enough looking at the accumulating snow, Link will appear with the duffle bag and he’ll be able to get dressed.

The scene out the window is so beautiful… maybe they won’t snowboard at all today, maybe they’ll just drink hot chocolate and stare.

There’s a knock at the door, and Jess’s voice – “Rhett, pancakes are done!” – followed by a mock-stern “You get away from that door, young lady!” courtesy Christy, apparently getting into her role as chaperone. 

Still no Link, and though Rhett hasn’t actually called for him yet it still kind of pisses him off. If he’s taking this long to get dress then OBVIOUSLY there’s a problem.

Or maybe reality has flipped to the version in which Link died snowboarding a year ago. What if?

No no no, why would both Jess and Christy be here if Link wasn’t?

Christy and I have bonded in our grief. Quite touching really.

This is stupid! Stop thinking!

That’s why Jess’s parents let her come. Nobody leaves me alone anymore. 

Stop it stop it stop it!

“Rhett? You lost or something?”

It’s Link, of course, with his duffle, and Rhett would hug him but his towel would probably fall and that would be awkward.

“Thanks,” Rhett says. And, then, “Sort of.”

“Sort of thanks?”

“Sort of lost. Um, you sure you want to go boarding today? You sure your pelvis is completely healed? And your head?”

“It’s been a year,” says Link. “What am I supposed to do, stop living?”

The snow’s still falling. The room is still a mess. In the kitchen, two girls they hope will be best friends, despite their age gap, are laughing together.

“No,” says Rhett. “Anything but that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This alludes to Link's 1999 snowboarding accident, detailed by Rhett in [The Tragedy](http://rhettandlinkommunity.com/forum/topics/the-tragedy-as-experienced). Everything else is made up.
> 
> This is written for the rhinkficathons Rhink Holiday Ficathon 2k16, based off this picture of [snow falling outside a makeshift sleeping area](https://rhinkficathons.tumblr.com/post/154974239312/week-two-weekly-prompts-too-drunk-at-a-new). The picture reminds me of ski trips I took when I was the age Rhett & Link are in this story - good times, but I do appreciate now being old enough to warrant a bed, pretty much no matter what.


End file.
